Friday, July 8, 2011

A few random pics from the camping trip last weekend. We had three sites, two mainly for the horses and one for our stuff. You can see the kids riding around on Rain one day in our campsite.

It was a beautiful area, and one I’d like to visit another time of the year. I’m not big on back country camping, and this was close with no power, water, or cell service at the site. We did have Tia’s trailer and we rented a pop-up, which Junior is guarding.

We took all three dogs, which was a bit much for me. Lots of chaos, especially when Tia was gone. The dogs are a little lost without her and whine quite a bit every time a horse or person goes by. With 4 horses as well, it was a busy place. A little too much for me, and when we added in the bugs, it was crazy. Everyone was bitten, but Delaney and I took it the worst since we react more to those bites.

We cooked almost everything over the fire. I had a small camp stove, but brought the wrong fuel and we ended up using it up the first day. So coffee, sausage, eggs, etc. were all over the fire.

I was really glad I brought the cast iron skillet since it made cooking and cleanup easier. Delaney enjoyed helping tend the fire, as you can see here, which was a combination of scavenged wood, some split firewood we bought, and charcoal.

I did cook dessert in the dutch oven twice, soda pop cake and fudge brownies. I never did remember to by hash browns and didn’t cook breakfast in there. I did enjoy the cooking, which was mostly Alex and I throughout the time we were there. We didn’t go hungry, though we didn’t have some of the healthiest meals.

I think the kids enjoyed this, and the fire pit was nice. It almost makes me wish we had one here, though I wonder if we would use it very much. Slowing down enough to enjoy something like that is hard for this family.

I did manage to ensure the beer was cold, and was glad that I stopped on the way up since we only had a 6 pack for the first day and a half. We did manage to find a store about 4 miles away where we loaded up for the rest of the trip.

Kendall loved riding her bike around, and I’m glad we brought it. She went all over the campsites, riding up and down roads, and accompanied me a couple times on my runs.

She was worn out each nice, and ready for bed earlier than most everyone else, though I was right behind her.

This was most of our week, hanging out by the campfire, with excursions out to ride, fish, run, etc. Overall it was very relaxing and nice to get away. A slow pace, that was a good reset with a few crazy weeks coming up at work.

The last day we headed out to try white water rafting. We’d done that on the Arkansas a few years ago while camping and everyone wanted to go again. We drove to Fort Collins, an hour away, and got ready.

The Poudre river was really high and much of is was closed because of late snowfalls and lots of runoff. So we ended up with two short 20 minute trips down the river (and a bus ride in between). The river wasn’t crazy rough, but it was chilly. Tia fell in at the end of the first run when we hit a big pool of water.

The second run we were having fun, already wet, and the rest of us took turns jumping in the water, Delaney going twice. It was coooooooollllddd. We all had our faces in shook when we hit the water, which was around 40F.

Still a great time, with lunch afterwards in Fort Collins at Rio, rated the best margarita in the country.

Tia decided to take it easy for her second one, getting this “toddler” drink. You can compare this glass to her iPhone.

A super green area, not sure it’s where I want to live, but Fort Collins is a neat down and this is a nice place. If you like the outdoors, this is a great place to visit.